Wednesday preview: JD Sports, Atkins, Ashmore

13th Apr 2010 17:28

JD Sports Fashion has raised expectations over Wednesday's full year results by saying back in January that profit before tax and exceptional items would be significantly above market expectations.That sent investment analysts scurrying to update their earnings forecasts, and current consensus is for pre-tax profit of £63.28m on sales of £734.6m. The company has weathered the recession better than its High Street rivals, thanks to its emphasis on its focus on the "fashion" part of its name than the "sports".Engineering contractor WS Atkins may be one of those companies likely to suffer from the new government taking the axe to public spending after the election, but for now the company seems to be keeping its head above water."Whilst the economic environment remains challenging, our good performance to date underpins our confidence for the full year," the company said in mid-February. Broker Numis Securities expects Wednesday's trading update to be full of "positive noises" and would be surprised if the company did not declare it is still on target to meet market expectations for the full year. Emerging markets asset manager Ashmore will update the market on its third quarter (Jan-Mar 2010) performance. Singer Capital Markets said that although the asset manager has been seeing an increase in requests for proposals, it is not expected significant inflows of funds to be announced on Wednesday."Overall we estimate that positive investment performance would have added some $1.1bn to AUM [assets under management] during Q3 [third quarter] and, with small net inflows of $0.3bn (similar levels to Q2), we estimate that AUM will have risen to around $33bn as at the end of March," Singer predicts.INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATEF&C Private Equity, Octopus Eclipse VCT 1, Octopus Eclipse VCT 3, Octopus Eclipse VCT 4QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATEYamana Gold IncQUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATEHenderson Global Property Companies Ltd., Mercantile Inv Trust, Merchants TrustINTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSBeige Book Fed Survey (US) (19:00)Business Inventories (US) (13:30)Consumer Price Index(US) (13:30)Crude Inventories (US) (18:00)Industrial Production (EU) (10:00)Retail Sales (US) (13:30)GMSAbbeycrestFINALSAGI Therapeutics, Bond International Software, JD Sports Fashion, Real Estate Opportunities, Velosi, Walker GreenbankANNUAL REPORTTravis PerkinsIMSSAshmore Group, FiltronicSPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEF&C Private Equity Restricte 'D' SharesAGMSAccess Intelligence, Heavitree, JPMorgan Claverhouse Inv Trust, Octopus Titan VCT 3, Octopus Titan VCT 4TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTSAlterian, Atkins (WS), Synergy Health, Travis PerkinsUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSClaimant Count Rate (09:30)Unemployment Rate (09:30)FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEBlackRock Latin American Inv Trust, Lancashire Holdings, Shire PlcFINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATEArbuthnot Banking Group, BG Group, Capita Group, Charles Taylor, Charter International, Chesnara, China Medical System Holdings, Davis Service Group, Devro, Evolution Group, Filtrona PLC, Fisher (James) & Sons, Forth Ports, Fyffes, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, IMI, Impax Environmental Markets, International Personal Finance, Invista Real Estate Investment Management Holdings, Kerry Group 'A', Legal & General Group, Octopus IHT AIM VCT 'A' Shares, RPS Group, Sperati (Ca), Spirax-Sarco Engineering, T Clarke, Tullow Oil